


The Cards

by ShianneUrami



Category: Homstuck
Genre: M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-07
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-28 12:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/674240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShianneUrami/pseuds/ShianneUrami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tavros tries to explain a card game to Gamzee for the millionth time, hoping a new strategy will help it sink in, and the highblood sees something he doesn’t like.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cards

**Author's Note:**

> Secret Santa 2k12 gift fic for hetaredoodle on tumblr.

“Okay, so, this one,” A little hand slid into view, a card underneath. He pulled his hand away to reveal a picture of a bunch of trees and a grassy field. “Is a Forest. You need them for things like, well, things that need Green Mana.”

You nod once slowly, committing it to memory. He cocked his head to the side, his horn hitting his shoulder, watching your face for a second. You smiled lightly, just enough to feel the tightness of your make up. He returned the smile and moved on.

“This white for, well, obviously White Mana. It comes from the Plains.”

Another nod, quicker this time. Really, he was giving you more information than you needed. Calling them mountains, that wasn’t going to help you. Just the colors were good enough. But you were going to keep a lid on your trap, not wanting to offend him.

“Blue is from Islands, Red Mana comes from the Mountains, and Black from the Swamps. Got all those?”

“All five?”

Tavros nodded quickly, “Y… wait…” He paused, thinking, “No, yeah, that’s it. I mean, you can get colorless mana from certain things, and some cards say you can chose any color but… yeah no, there’s just the five for now.”

You blink down at him and nod slowly again, “Alright, we got that hashed out, slammed out and laid the fuck out, what’s next.”

“Neeext would be explaining what each can do.” He smiled, his sharp little teeth looking almost menacing if they weren’t so perfectly aligned and small in his big grin. Tavros is sitting on the floor next to you, cards scattered around you all wiley niley, his legs folded up under him. His chair is pushed off to the side and he seems content where he is.

You are happy to sit here with your pale bro for a while and listen to him ramble your sponge clots off about shit you honestly have tried to understand, but never do. There are so many details and rules that you get to a certain point in his explanation and every single time you zone out. You want to sit and listen. To learn so you can play with him. But when he gets to rambling about everything that can happen, you just… shut down.

Right now he’s telling you about all the things Green can do, and it sounds a bit like what your little glubbing Fefsis does. Life giving, boosting allies, ‘mana rushing’ which is just his fancy way of saying sap more outta the trees. Sometimes small with elves and deer, bringing life and mana. Other times it’s a raging monster with no stop in sight. Crashing through with ‘trample’ lethal ‘deathtouch’ and ‘venom’. It really does sound like that little princess the more you think about it, she is sweet, but man does she have a temper sometimes.

Okay, that’s easy enough to understand.

Green could really easily be applied to Tavros next to you too. Small and unexpected, but just the right push and he was the troll people expected. Headstrong and willing to fight. He had a tender side, but he could be a troll just the same as anyone else.

This was a lot easier. You understand this now. Like, a lot better!

You nod and lean on him a bit, watching over his horn at all the cards laid out. The two of you talk for a long while, and the more you talk and the more you think about it, the more you think you understand it. And to see his eyes light up when you tell him you genuinely understand is the best thing in the world right now. Seeing him so happy…

After a long while you’ve set it all into their places. White with it’s order and flying and life link, it’s little unexpected creatures. Peaceful but capable of being rather deceitful. You’ve decided that the little law sis Terezi and the spectrum guzzler Kanaya foot the bill for White.

The two bluebloods fit Blue in a manner that makes you laugh at the serendipity and chances of that. It can be big and scary, crashing through and destroying everything, but it’s also slow and picks at your brain. It makes you do things you don’t want to do, forget things you don’t want to forget. It’s tricky with wit and intelligence, and reminds you so, so much of the bluebloods Vriska and your pal Equius.

Red is without a doubt in your pan Karbro and little kitty Nepeta. Passion and fire and all the flying rage the two of them could be thrown into for such little things. Red spells didn’t cost a lot to hurt the enemy. It fit the two of them very well.

This whole thing had you smiling with your diamond brother, happy you understood enough to keep him happy too. This game, Magic Troll Gathering, it wasn’t so hard. One of the hardest things you’d done, but it wasn’t so bad.

“Alright, so this one… this one is black. Black is the rainbowdrinkers, shapeshifters, the monsters and creatures that lurk in the darkness. Infection and deathtouch, sacrificing others and pulling them back to keep them as your own.” Tavros explained, fingers flitting across the cards quickly, pulling dark images of blood thirsty trolls and monsters into view.

Looking down at them though, a stirring inside you picked up. Placing this color on someone so that you might be able to better understand it, was tricky. You had assigned colors to the others, only leaving yourself, Eridan, Sollux and Aradia from the mix. Aradia and all her ghostly charm fit you thought, but at the same time, she was kind of a flighty little thing, her key points hard to pin down. Solbro wasn’t that easy to slot either, what with his bifurcation. So you left those two aside.

That mean that Eridan and yourself were the black cards. The evil and deceitful monsters that prowled the darkness. A shudder ran through you, your limbs starting to shake. This game wasn’t fun anymore. This game was horrible. You were a monster, a terrible horrible being with blood and slaughter on his mind.

You lean in, wrapping your arms around your knees to rest your forehead against them. It’s hard to sit here, your think pan suddenly a mess of thoughts, two voices battling over what you are and what you’re not. What they are. A shaky sigh rattles you to the core and Tavros’ hand is on your shoulder.

When you look up at him, his eyes are as white as the snow of the mountains, blank and deep, staring at you. Tavros cocked his head to the side, “Gamzee, are you… alright?”

The longer you stare at him, the less time it takes for a sheen of tears to bubble over your vision, staining the world in wavy purple. A deep thick brown circle paints his chest, the wound that killed him, inflicted by Vriska. And you watch as a thin line of bronze etches itself across his neck and you know that you did that. You severed his head! You know that you are a monster, and you know you’ve hurt people. But somehow… you almost regret some of it?

You pity this little cripple so much, the dream bubble around you making it so hard not to, showing you all of his low points. His wheelchair, the hesitant voice, the way he turns his head to the side when he wants to ask, but doesn’t know the words TO ask. You had pitied him in a crimson sense, and you were shot from the sky. You sunk down to pale, and he accepted that. Well… his ghost accepted it.

He had watched what you had done, your descent into madness. And he pitied you in return for it all. A choked sob escapes your lips as you look at him and he reaches out to wrap his arms around your neck, burying his face into your shoulder. Before you can do much else, surprised by the contact, you catch a glimpse of your shirt and all the blood encrusted there. All the blood.

His shooshes and paps are soft like he is. Kind and gentle and all you can do is cry. Choke on pathetic stupid sobs and listen to him murmur reassurances. He says it’s okay. It’s really not. You know it’s not. He’s dead after all.

After a few long minutes you are able to put a lid on the waterworks and shove a sock in your chute. A handful of hiccups and a sniffle or two and Tavros lifts his head from your shoulder, being mindful of the horn you had your chin rested on. One last sigh to clear it all up and he nudges you in the chin with his nose and smiles at you.

You smile back down at him, nuzzling him back, and deep down, you know it’s alright. You’ve done a lot of really horrible things. You’ve killed innocent trolls. It is to be expected to kill others in the world you live in, but they had been friends. Tavros nudges you gently again and rests his forehead against your shoulder.

“Pale… for you Gamzee.”

A tired breathy laugh, “All the pale love for your little brass self too Tavros.”


End file.
